W/NW Street Art

[Kai-san]

I've searched everywhere, but cannot find a thread for street art. There are at least two threads for graffiti, but that's a different kettle of fish.

This was shot on Sunday with a newly restored Contax II and a Jupiter-3 lens.

 

[Henry]

Here is a moment where I wish I hadn’t lost an entire computer when I moved from Nebraska to Oklahoma. It had my entire archive of images I had taken of street art in downtown Lincoln. I spent an entire summer walking every inch of the downtown documenting the street art, good and bad. It was such an interesting time: days photographing graffiti and murals, and nights spent taking detailed studies of parking garages. i still have all the parking garage images, since they were on film, but every bit of the street art is lost.

 

[Kai-san]

Really sorry to hear that, must be a nightmare to loose so many images. I'm not the best when it comes to backup, always behind my shooting rate. The fact that I have everything on film is reassuring, but scanning the 16 000 frames I've got on HD would take more time than I care to think about.
I love to shoot street art as well, and here in Stavanger we're so lucky to have a street art festival every year. So when I'm back from my summer vacation I will do the rounds to discover new works.

 

[Mackinaw]

Our local Arts Council painted this on the back of our barber shop.



Jim B.

 

[Kai-san]

Ha ha, somebody had some fun there; I didn't know it was the hairdresser who cut off van Gogh's ear.

 

[Kai-san]

Another one from Stavanger.

 

[Mackinaw]

Ha ha, somebody had some fun there; I didn't know it was the hairdresser who cut off van Gogh's ear.

Yeah, exactly. We needed something to fill that space, and one of our more mischievous artists came up with the idea of having the barber cut off Van Gogh's ear. The owner of the barbershop loved it.

Jim B.

 

[Out to Lunch]

Switzerland, Geneva, Plainpalais. ''L'odrre n'a pas d'ipmrotncae''. For the anglophiles: The Order Does Not Matter. Leica ME - Zeiss Biogon 2/35mm.

 

[Kai-san]

Some street art is tiny.

 

[Erik van Straten]

gelatin silver print (summicron 50mm f2 collapsible) leica mp

Rome, 2007

Erik.

 

[Kai-san]

I don't think a classical stone bas-relief can be classified as street art. There are many excellent books on street art in bookstores.

 

[Erik van Straten]

I don't think a classical stone bas-relief can be classified as street art. There are many excellent books on street art in bookstores.

For me street art is art that is to be seen in the streets! A classical stone bas-relief is art. However, I do not intend to offend the opinion of others.

Erik.

 

[Kai-san]

What is commonly known today as street art started in the 1970's, if I'm not all wrong. In those days it was often regarded as vandalism by the establishment, but today it has in most places become mainstream. It's even exhibited in art galleries, which I think is quite ironic. That's probably what happens to all art rebellions.

 

[Erik van Straten]

In galleries they exhibit everything that will sell. I'm old enough to know that street art started in Amsterdam already in the 1960's. The cause was democratization on the one hand and public advertising on the other. Both phenomena caused many people to feel like artists and they wanted to show it. If it doesn't get too bad, I don't have much objection to it, there's little to argue against as long as there's no destruction.

Erik.

 

[Henry]

Some of that, too, is the coming of age of both artists and consumers. Cycles of interest. Plus: Some very savvy business people who also happened to be street artists really dragged the medium on to the main stage. KAWS being one example of this, but there are obviously many others. That shift/evolution is always fascinating to me.

 

[Mackinaw]

Are murals street art? This is a small part of a huge 3-D fish mural in Alpena, Michigan. One of the most amazing outdoor murals I've ever seen.



Jim B.

 

[Henry]

Today, probably?

It's hard to give an answer because it seems to be one of the genres that is constantly being redefined in some way. I think it had a more clandestine (perhaps even illicit) connotation when I was younger, but today it seems much more broad and inclusive. I'm entirely down with that expansion.

My brother in law is a mural artist (mostly painting, but lately he's been including metal work sculptures as part of the mural), I'll ask him next time we get together what he thinks.

edit to add: that really is an interesting piece of art Jim B.

 

[Kai-san]

Are murals street art? This is a small part of a huge 3-D fish mural in Alpena, Michigan. One of the most amazing outdoor murals I've ever seen.

Jim B.

The most used tool among street artist is the spray can, but some have become so skilful that it's difficult to see the difference. The use of stencils became popular after Banksy entered the scene. As most street art is done on walls I suppose you could call it a mural, the difference is probably just as much in the language as anything else.

 

[Kai-san]

In galleries they exhibit everything that will sell. I'm old enough to know that street art started in Amsterdam already in the 1960's. The cause was democratization on the one hand and public advertising on the other. Both phenomena caused many people to feel like artists and they wanted to show it. If it doesn't get too bad, I don't have much objection to it, there's little to argue against as long as there's no destruction.

Erik.

Some of that, too, is the coming of age of both artists and consumers. Cycles of interest. Plus: Some very savvy business people who also happened to be street artists really dragged the medium on to the main stage. KAWS being one example of this, but there are obviously many others. That shift/evolution is always fascinating to me.

The mainstream art scene is driven by profit, and the new and shocking has in many instances replaced quality. But that's not to say that street art is inferior, many artists in the genre display both high quality and inventiveness. In the end it all comes down to individual taste.

 

[Kai-san]

This is the latest trend I have seen here. The artists behind this are clearly professionals and the spray can has been ditched.